Um, sad he died and all and if they want to name some south Buffalo park after him I’m all for it, but the airport? Really? I haven’t seen someone so instantly sainted in his profession despite being painfully average since Kurt Cobain. The man wasn’t Walter Cronkite. He was great at reminding everyone he was from Buffalo but is that really worth naming the airport after him for?

His status or job performance as a journalist has nothing to do with it. It has to do with his national prominence and his Buffalo boosterism. These are what we should honor. Not necessarily his journalism career.

I liked him a ton, and respected his “boosterism” for buffalo, but I feel like this is probably too over the top. Name a street, or a park fine…but naming airports should be reserved for truly great natives, or transformitory individuals who have changed the region for the better..

I support the airport naming but disagree with Pundit about the reasoning.

The order of this is opposite from my way of thinking:

His status or job performance as a journalist has nothing to do with it. It has to do with his national prominence and his Buffalo boosterism. These are what we should honor.

Russert’s national prominence can’t be separated from his journalistic career accomplishments, his honorable political service, his life long work ethic, his integrity, and the way he approached life and treated people.

The prominence and the respect he earned from so many people was a byproduct of those.

If it was just some famous celebrity who happened to be from Buffalo and boosted it on anational stage for a bunch of years, then the airport naming wouldn’t be fitting as I see it. Obviously my take on Russert’s accomplishments is very different from how Splett sees it.

I mean, yeah clearly him being a Buffalo native and showing such strong loyalty his whole life is a big part of it – but without the other stuff it wouldn’t be enough. Suppose Paris Hilton happened to be from Buffalo and talked it up often. That would be kind of different, right? Maybe we’d name an alley after her or something like that.

Starbuck that wiki is kind of lame, what is it anyone born with in 200 miles of buffalo is born in buffalo? john wayne bobbit is a product of niagara falls and timmy mc was a starpoint student. you might as well at paul and karla as being from buffalo too.

mike – hey, it’s Wikipedia – make some edits and fix that list so it’s not lame!

But seriously, yeah I know but I couldn’t find any other list handy. My point with that was like what Richard Stonebridge wrote in response to Ike. It’d be difficult to find someone meeting a standard of “truly great or transformitory”. I’m not saying that’s impossible, but nobody came to mind at the moment to me either.

A whole separate category could be military/police/fire heroes. If there was some push to name something big such as the airport after someone like that I’d be very open to it.

Otherwise, I can’t right now think of anyone a better match for the airport name than Russert. There’s always the option of leaving it without a name too, but I like the idea of naming it after him. Works for me on a few levels.

Rick James should have something though. I bet a Rick James Museum could be the only museum in Buffalo to really draw people and make a profit. It could help subsidize other museums, except it’d always spend all its profit on, uhhh – stuff.

Perhaps “Rick James Funkadelic Airport”. Make the city a new destination.
“Forget Vegas, I’m flying into Funkadelic Airport to do my gambling at the Buffalo Seneca Tin Shack Casino”

Ever look at the airports who are actually named after someone, and how they got those names?

Usually aviators–dead ones who died flying. Or Aviation Pioneers, and a couple of Presidents (JFK and Ronald Reagan).

Most military airfields are named for dead aviators. One in CA is named for Capt. Jeb F Seagle, a Marine Weapons officer, native of the town where I live who died saving his pilot in Grenada.

When you think about someone like him, or a President or an aviation pioneer, naming the International gateway into the western part of the Empire state after a political staffer and journalist is just liberally wacko enough for Buffalo.

All respect due to Tim, and may he rest in peace, but naming the airport after him?

Ask schoolkids who Edward R Murrow or William Shrier are and you’ll get “HUH?” and in 40 years Tim Russert will be remembered the same way.

I heartily support changing the name of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport to TIM RUSSERT FIELD. Chicago’s O’Hare Field, Washington’s Ronald Reagan Airport, St. Louis’Lambert Field and California’s John Wayne Airport haveestablished such a precedent. A permanent airportg display including, a bust of Russert, photographs, and quotations from his writings and programs, and his comments about Buffalo would honor Tim and remind travelers of his love for his home town.